Sex, Convictions, and Honor

I’m thinking about this wonderful thing called life and that wonderful topic that for various reasons is filled with shame, wonder, awe, passion, joy, hurt, and a whole host of other emotions. I’m thinking about sex. (Ok… stop giggling).

Now, let’s do a little background: I’m looking at how its becoming unpopular for believers to have convictions. It’s one thing to simply believe something or hold it as true. It’s another thing to be convicted about that same thing. The conviction caries with in that this must be adhered to. In our society, the only absolute seems to be that we must adhere to nothing. So often when one acts according to their convictions, they are chastised as being “extreme” or “too religious” or whatever. There are some people I’ve run across on 360 who’s beliefs I’m not in agreement with, but who’s conviction I admire and realize a need to step up in my own life.

In Romans 1, the people were in the wrong because they had no conviction… they didn’t feel that what they believed about God was important enough to alter or curb their behavior, they did whatever they wanted to and God let them. A lot of times we only hear this passage in relation to homosexuality, but it’s truth in the text is applied to everyone reading! We have to do more than just believe!

What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. (Romans 1:21, The Message)

How many of us have felt this way: that there is no sense of direction… or at least no significant one? That somehow what everyone is chasing after (a hot body, a good sex, etc…) isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. That happiness isn’t nestled in the pleasure sensations that rise from between ones legs. Then we ‘evolve’ into the relationship model, but we still don’t go for it God’s way. We come up with a list (albeit simple or complex) of what we would like in our relationship, but we don’t consult God in what we seek for.

I’ve often seen this pattern heterosexual or homosexual… sex is ok as long as both of you want to do it. That’s about the extent of our convictions (and even that is a blurry line with all the manipulation we throw into the equation).

I’m not criminalizing sex at all.

However I am concerned about our abandonment of God and his desire for our lives (not just sex).

Don’t you realize that this is not the way to live? Unjust people who don’t care about God will not be joining in his kingdom. Those who use and abuse each other, use and abuse sex, use and abuse the earth and everything in it, don’t qualify as citizens in God’s kingdom. A number of you know from experience what I’m talking about, for not so long ago you were on that list. Since then, you’ve been cleaned up and given a fresh start by Jesus, our Master, our Messiah, and by our God present in us, the Spirit. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11, The Message)

And this is the point of all this discussion: God has given us a fresh chance in Jesus… so often we take the grace and mercy, the love and kindness and run out with full of belief but low on conviction. We believe that God loves us, that sex is good, and that he wants us to be happy. But we don’t have any conviction that he cares how we live and wants a say in our lives. At the very core of this is our bodies and what we do with them.

Where has the honor gone? Why is it that the most honor we can muster is for the physical appearance of the body… we’ll worship a hot body or a sexual satisfying experience, but we won’t honor our selves any higher than that.

…remember that your bodies are created with the same dignity as the Master’s body. You wouldn’t take the Master’s body off to a whorehouse, would you? I should hope not. – (v.15, The Message)

I’m not saying I’ve been perfect in this avenue, but I feel a conviction to do better. It’s an inward thing, that’s working its way into my actions.

There’s more to sex than mere skin on skin. Sex is as much spiritual mystery as physical fact. As written in Scripture, “The two become one.” Since we want to become spiritually one with the Master, we must not pursue the kind of sex that avoids commitment and intimacy, leaving us more lonely than ever–the kind of sex that can never “become one.” There is a sense in which sexual sins are different from all others. In sexual sin we violate the sacredness of our own bodies, these bodies that were made for God-given and God-modeled love, for “becoming one” with another. (v.16-18, The Message )

SEX IS GOOD

It’s our God given desire to become one with another. I think it comes from our desire to become one with Him… it’s a shadow of the most personal intimacy that we experience in true fellowship with God—that closeness where two become one.

Sex is Good, God is Good, now it’s time to be Good and Godly in our sex. Remember he redeemed us so that we could have a chance to get things right and really live. And who could make sex better than the one who made it? Who could show us how to be pleased and fulfilled better than the one who created you, your hot spots, and every part of your body?! God wants us to enjoy sex, but he has a prescription for how to do it right. Let’s seek him and get this thing together!